The past week provided yet more examples of God bites man in the Republican presidential primaries. As John McCain, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani perform backflips to appease their party's conservative Christian base, their faith-based contortions just continue to backfire.
Just days after his abrupt Episcopalian to Baptist conversion, John McCain has more God trouble. In an interview with Beliefnet, McCain proclaimed "I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation." While that earned him the kudos of at least one Christian Coalition blogger, the Anti-Defamation League's Abraham Foxman was less than tickled. By Wednesday, McCain was in full faith-based retreat, admitting "yes, I believe a Muslim could be president."
Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continued to pay the price for comical record of gymnastic flip-flops on abortion, gay rights, and stem cell research. A new ad running in Iowa from the Log Cabin Republicans is highlighting Romney's past pro-choice positions and proclaims "for years he's fought conservatives and religious extremists." The Romney campaign, in full damage control mode, portrays the spot as an attack ad designed to help Rudy Giuliani, supposedly the LCR's true preference. Romney spokesman Kevin Madden protested, "Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment and so it makes sense that a national gay rights group would attack him."
Romney's gay trouble comes just days after new candidate Fred Thompson took it in the shorts from the far right. In a fiery email, American Taliban stalwart and Focus on the Family chieftain James Dobson trashed Thompson's candidacy. "He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to,'' said Dobson, continuing, "and yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
Elsewhere in crazy-base world, Rudy Giuliani is facing more trouble with his own Catholic Church. Just days after failing to deflect the issue of his serial marriages with a staged cell phone call from wife #3 during his speech to the NRA, Giuliani learned that he would join John Kerry among the ranks of politicians refused Communion by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke. "To me," Burke said, "you have to be certain a person realizes he is persisting in a serious public sin." Giuliani, who just weeks earlier claimed "the degree to which I am a good or not so good Catholic, I prefer to leave to the priests," responded meekly, "Archbishops have a right to their opinion. Everybody has a right to their opinion."
And Giuliani's God problems don't end there. Alarmed by the prospect of a Republican ticket led by the pro-choice Giuliani, a group of conservative Christian leaders including Dobson, Richard Viguerie and the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins threatened Saturday that "if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third-party candidate." While still an unlikely prospect, a Rasmussen Reports poll found that 27% of Republicans would vote for a pro-life third party candidate if Giuliani wins the GOP nomination.
For the presidential candidates of the GOP running as men of faith, these apparently are the times that try men's souls.